Category Archives: reading

It’s a Brave New World–For Women Speculative Chick-Lit

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I want a new category on Amazon that more accurately reflects the changes afoot in our ideation of a woman’s place in the world. In order to do this, I feel I have to branch out in my writing and create stories in genres that are typically male-dominated. Women need in a voice in those, too. Thus, I will be adding this new tag to all my books. I call it #SpeculativeChickLit. It is distinguished by feminism. (“The radical notion that women are people.”) A classification free of the usual formulas that the less evolved members of society wishes us … Continue reading →

FALL IN LOVE WITH LESFIC SALE OCTOBER 19TH - October 27th

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I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to stay focused on work this time of year. With nighttime falling earlier and the temperature getting chillier, all I want to do is log off the computer and curl up on the couch with a cup of tea, a cozy blanket, my grouchy but lovable cat at my feet, and a book. I need to stock up on books for winter. How about you? Eleven authors (including me) have joined forces to keep you entertained at rock-bottom prices. Below, you’ll find all the goodies on offer. Before I get … Continue reading →

Rocking the Boat Authors must defend themselves

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Don’t say anything. Don’t make a comment. It will make you look bad. That’s the usual advice in the publishing industry when someone posts a caustic review of your book, under the assumption that this is about some type of insecurity on the part of a writer. This is not insecurity. It is frustration, and in this case, it’s also outrage. In fact, historically, authors are expected to keep their mouth shut about these things, but I am a proponent of the adage Silence equals Death. This advice to stay mum strikes me as the same mentality that got that Orange Nightmare in the Oval … Continue reading →

Goodies, Captured Critters & Politics

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Sort of a quick diary entry of our day, with our usual adventures with photography. Allergy shot today (only 28 more to go. LOL) Afterward, we had a joyful visit to Barnes & Noble (a rare treat these days) and got some goodies. Melissa bought me a pen-cup I loved, and we of course bought some books too. Tesla: The Life & Times of an Electric Messiah, Pocket Birds of North America, Speeches That Changed the World, The Total Outdoorsman (read: outdoorswoman–sexist bastards.) and a fabulous journal. On the way home, we saw a fox with an injured paw. Followed … Continue reading →

Thoughts on The Thief of Time by John Boyles I was intrigued by the idea of immortality, and the jaunt through history

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I have missed sitting down with a physical book and reading. My recent decision to take a sabbatical and just allow myself to be creative and deadline-free, had me standing in front of my fiction bookshelf, seeking something new. Something enjoyable. As most of you know by now, I have become quite finicky about my fiction reading. I read so much of my own work in pumping out work in the last ten years, that I have had little time to read for pleasure, and when I do, it’s inevitably just before I go to sleep, and by then, my … Continue reading →

Whole Brain Literary Food Novelwriting is a WHOLE BRAIN activity. So is the publishing business.

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Recently, I posted a inquiry to my readers, about a publishing aspect of my work. All the responses were encouraging and thought-provoking, but one in particular touched upon some deeper themes. Here it is. TO MY READERS–A QUESTION: As authors, we want to please everyone, but that’s just not possible. For instance, on my newest novella, Saturation Point, I have 4 and 5 star reviews and personal messages and emails that tell me how much they enjoyed the introspective nature of this book, and the characters, but on one review, the reviewer was bored because there wasn’t dialogue on every … Continue reading →

Nonfiction & Non-nonfiction It bothers me when anything is referred to as a negative of something else

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It bothers me when anything is referred to as a negative of something else,  such as nonfiction is NOT fiction. Its only identity is about what it is NOT. Like Man and non-man.  Like white and non-white. Like yellow and non-yellow. I find it so pejorative, with this word in particular, and I wish there was another way to say “nonfiction” that was about what it IS, not what it is NOT. Fiction is also referred to as literature or fictional prose, but it is a positive–it is fictional. It’s not even non-nonfiction, perhaps only because that would be cumbersome. … Continue reading →

Going Mainstream

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CAUTION: FRUSTRATED RANT HOVERING NEARBY. When you find yourself, as a writer, lamenting about why you’re even writing at all, and entertaining the idea of not writing any more, something has to change. I’m growing more and more frustrated with, and weary of, the lack of support from Lesbian Readers for what I want to offer them. I am sick to death of their constant praise of bad writing in the LesFic market, and their unwillingness to demand better, and try anything out of their narrow reading interests. It’s painfully clear that most LesFic Readers have literary blinders, and will … Continue reading →

Scribe’s Melancholia, Literary Mind-Expansion & 50 Shades of Grape It's just too difficult to pinpoint the fickle and often inexplicable tastes of the readers

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  I’m in a bit of a funk, a tizzy, a doldrum (take your pick) about writing at the moment. Call it Scribe’s Melancholia. I’m having to seriously consider ignoring my book-marketing, because it’s so time-consuming and takes me away from what I’m really supposed to be doing–writing (Hello). Back to old-school, where writers were sequestered in a dark room with a candle and their muses, and never had to actually market themselves as a product, nor deal with their creations after they were delivered to the publisher. Further, it’s impossible to predict what people will buy anymore. And as far … Continue reading →

Giving it Away Giveaway

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In response to the unusual interest paid to one of my recent blogs, Giving it Away: Spoilers as Both Noun & Accusation, I decided I  would publish that entry in digital form, so I could spread the word. I will be offering it for free download –that’s right: Giving it Away, will be GIVEN AWAY> on Smashwords, and on Amazon, too, hoping they match the FREE price. Otherwise, Amazon might list it for .99 at first. But I felt this information was too important, and it needed to be available to those who would write book reviews. from the article: … Continue reading →

Giving it Away: Spoilers as Both Noun & Accusation

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Directly out of the chute, let me say this is coming from myself as both a writer and a reader. One compelling reason (among others) that I became an author, was due to my disappointment in the offerings of a certain genre. I wanted to write books *I* would want to read. I launched myself into this vocation with little knowledge of what that decision would bring. I had no way of knowing the degree of vulnerability that publishing my writing would entail. Publishing a book is very much like being naked in public. So it’s difficult not to take … Continue reading →

Reading, Muses, Curses & the Pick-A-Project-Polka.

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  Since completing the third and fourth books (simultaneously) of the AKA Investigations series, I am doing that Pick-A-Project-Polka; a dance we writers do when we’re trying to decide what we feel like working on next; we listen to our muse, we dance with our muse, we kick our muse out and get practical, and we sometimes curse our muse and send it to bed without dinner. All of these I’ve done this time around, as well. Fortunately, I seem to have spent enough time on a particular draft to safely assume it’s the one I will be finishing next. … Continue reading →

Diversify and Die diversification has only managed to erode the ground under my literary feet

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It’s so satisfying to sit at my desk and write to the sound of the ocean. Only this time, it’s not in my earbuds, but outside my window. The move to Dunedin placed me within walking distance of the beach, and the rhythmic breath of the waves at shore soothes me. The cool, robust breeze from the water sometimes spits through our windows like a fire hose, but it helps regulate the temperature in this upstairs master suite, high above almost all other houses on this hillside. It’s Summer here, though luckily for me, the fall and winter-loving, heat-intolerant moi, … Continue reading →

“well written and fast paced page turner from start to finish” Review

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REVIEW of ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE from Terry at Affinity eBooks. Armchair Detective An AKA Investigations Book Amateur unlicensed Private Detective, Jobeth O’Brien, is living on the breadline, she’s not even keeping her head above water. Her night time job delivering newspapers doesn’t even begin to pay the bills. She’s hiding a secret which prevents her from getting her private investigators license. The one thing she has to her name that she loves, is her 1962 Falcon. Jobeth meets rich socialite, Phoebe McMasters while she’s delivering her newspapers. Jobeth is smitten. Unfortunately, Phoebe is married and straight, isn’t she? Apparently not! The … Continue reading →

Also Known as DNA (Reviews & Excerpt)

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  REVIEWS for Also Known As DNA (Book 2 in the AKA Investigations Series) “After reading Armchair Detective,  the first in the AKA Investigations series, I didn’t think Baeli could top herself. But damned if she didn’t write another outstanding book!  She is definitely no one-hit-wonder.  Kelli Jae Baeli is able to engage a reader in a way that most writers can only dream of. Compelling, sometimes hysterically funny, snappy dialogue, 3 dimensional characters you fall in love with, and a plot that pulls you along as if you are tethered to an unforgiving rope. You are cheating yourself if … Continue reading →